the american civil war how the heck does it relate to world politics well more so than you can imagine um obviously we've already talked about the issue of lincoln and slavery and how that had a profound impact but there's another one to consider and that is the fact that most european powers sent representatives to basically be on either side so there was a prussian an austrian an italian a british a french representative that would be on the union side of the battle and a like number on the confederate side and basically they saw the american civil war as an opportunity to kind of see how things work out save them some time one of the most critical elements of the civil war is the fact that it was fought around railroads almost every major battle is near a railroad junction additionally the north had only one railroad cage which is the one that they use in england and also the one that they use in europe whereas the south had 32 different ones now of all the nations that went and participated in this kind of observance the one that got the most out of it was prussia and if you look especially like at petersburg where you have all the trenches and so forth you can see kind of the origins of where where world war one will be coming so right at the u.s civil war is starting wilhelm the first becomes king of prussia and he will became pressure from 1861 until 1888. within less than a year otto von bismarck becomes his chief minister now initially he wasn't necessarily thrilled by bismarck but he quickly recognized the fact that bismarck was brilliant bismarck had a great ability to kind of twist the facts to fit what prussia and in his mind germany needed to give you an example of a bismarckness thing the reason why the retirement age is 65 today is because of bismarck the socialists in germany wanted to create an old age pension system bismarck was a conservative bismarck realized that if he could steal this item off the list of stuff on the socialist agenda it would hurt them so he sent his um fact and figure guys out and they figured out that most the average life expectancy for german at the time was 60 and so what he did was he is announced that he was going to create an old age pension system and the socialist is like how can you do this but because the average age is 60 he makes the retirement age 65 which means that most people won't make it to retirement which means the system will make money which means the state will not put out as much money and it drives the socialist nuts because they're like he's using you he's using you and the people were like yeah but we're getting an old age pension but you'll die before you get it but we're getting an old age pension he believed in what he called real politic real politics you know if you have to take position from your enemy in order to win you do that so the first time that bismarck has an opportunity to kind of use his skill level comes with denmark um the danes used to control a lot of territory a lot of territory i mean they were vikings for what it's worth but by the early 1600s they had slowly lost territory in what is now the german states and the most famous area that they lost were the duchies of schleswig and holstein holstein like the cows and so um especially after the napoleonic wars schleswig and holstein became independent principalities well in 1863 denmark decided they want to reclaim their glory and so they invade less wicked holstein well bismarck goes to the austrians and says how can you let them do this you know we are we are all part of the the german confederation you know these these two german states have been seized by the people of denmark we must liberate them prussia will do it won't ask you to do it well the austrians feel awkward so they're like yeah yeah we'll go in with you on this so austria and prussia join together the catholic south and the protestant north to go fight the evil dance and what they do is they conquer um schleswig and holstein and they liberate them from the danes and having done so bismarck says austria you know what thank you for doing this thank you for coming in with us you know what we're going to do we're going to give you schleswig and we'll hold on to holstein and oscar's like ah that would be really nice thank you so much and so austria gets schleswig and prussia gets holstein austrians aren't thinking but if you look at the map think about it look at the map for a second what's the problem here there you have a cup of coffee for let's slip it off here for a second yep hopefully you figured it out the austrians have to go through prussian territory in order to get back into the wider germany and bismarck says you know i need you to do me a favor border guards make the austrians life miserable always strip search them do whatever you can to make their life difficult and so after a couple years 1866 austria having had enough of the way the germans treat them decide to declare war on prussia all right well here's the thing the austrian war on prussia is also known as the seven week war because the russians were totally ready for this they knew it was coming because they had set it up they had led austria into a trap and what happened was the at this point in time already you know the u.s civil war started in 1861 it just ended a year ago but the prussians have been building railroads like crazy which means that within 48 hours of austria declaring war the whole prussian army is on trains heading south to austria and before the austrians and their allies can do anything the prussians have already invaded in fact the prussians are in austria and on the the gates of vienna before anything can happen it's nuts because the prussians have learned from the advances in technology used in the american civil war and the austrians paid no attention and within seven weeks austria which should have been the bigger nation is defeated what happens is that as part of the um the seven week war bismarck creates this thing called the north german confederation north german confederation basically makes up all this the states except bavaria and a couple other southern catholic states and they're not quite a unified being but they're pretty much a unified being and they have all their meetings in berlin which is the capital prussia it is only a matter of time and then to just kind of seal the deal and bismarck had nothing to do with this i don't think the next year the hungarians use the excuse of a weakened austrian army and the embarrassment to rise up and austria is forced to surrender the territory of hungary so hungary becomes an independent territory within austria thus we have the austria-hungary or the austro-hungarian empire they have the same leader france joseph is the emperor of austria and king of hungary but still this is just like another like punch to the austrian soul um which means at this point time they're not going to be of any use or competition to pressure which of course is what bismarck wanted bismarck's next target will be france [Music] there is a debate going on because once again the royal family in spain has basically burned itself out uh this keeps happening for some reason i don't understand but that you know um and there's a big debate as to who will get to pick the person who becomes the new king of spain and napoleon iii wants to be the person because napoleon iii is you know napoleon iii and he wants to live up to the reputation of his uncle what bismarck does is bismarck sends a telegram to napoleon iii over this it's called the elms telegram e l m s homes telegram and it's just snide and obnoxious enough that napoleon iii is a hothead and doesn't think for a second but just says i will not be insulted by the pressions they're just a little dinky country i'm emperor of france and he declares war on um pressure well what happens is bismarck goes to those southern states and says guys we're being attacked will you help us and they're like oh yeah man we hate the french and so those southern states bavaria and so forth now that austria is not going to be there for him join in and well if you look at the map you can see what happens because the imperial french armies move forward only briefly once to sedan at the battle of zedan the french basically are defeated and what to make matters as you can see napoleon iii wanting to be like his uncle leads his forces into disaster and promptly captured the french now declared the third republic and republican forces attempt to defeat the this united german force and they're quickly defeated themselves if you look almost all the lines in this are green it's a humiliating defeat for the french and a great victory for the price [Music] 1871 in the hall of mirrors at verse high the german empire is proclaimed there is wilhelm first emperor of a united germany it's called an empire because the states it's like a federated state even today germany is a federated state and the various states have kind of independent powers more so than say the us and then you see bismarck there in white who is basically kind of presenting the crown to his boss over to the right is the symbol of the third republic in order to avoid the mistakes of the second republic in the third republic the president will be basically useless he will be in charge of cutting ribbons at functions and that is it they do not want another napoleon in order to avoid the fate of the first republic it's a very conservative republic the third republic will never give women the right to vote they will be probably the last government in europe to france will be the last government europe to give women the right to vote and they are super conservative well in reaction to this the people of paris rise up and form a communist collective they're known as the communards and it's extra extra embarrassing for the third republic that their capital is now not in their control and so they go to the prussians who have just beaten them and say hey can you take care of this problem and the questions go no it's not our problem it's your problem your friends if you want your capital back you got to take it it's extra humiliating and what this means is the french are really really really angry additionally the germans make the french pay reparations and they take two predominantly german-speaking sections of france i'll say lorraine and make them part of this new german empire oh man the french they want revenge now here's the thing bismarck knew that france would want revenge and he had to figure out a way of preventing france from doing it as long as possible and so in order to do this he sets up a series of alliances to protect germany there's an agreement with great britain in 1887 this isn't a problem because the queen queen victoria is married to a german or was she loves germany okay that's good britain is fine um there is a reassurance treaty between germany and russia which is signed in 1887 additionally germany creates an alliance between russia austria and germany called the three emperors league which comes up for new renewal every eight years um it's renewed in 1873 and again in 1881. uh he also makes a dual alliance with austria in 1879 and then in 1882 adds italy um one of the things that that happens during the frank oppression war that's often missed is the fact with france kind of occupied and then napoleon iii gone italy was finally able to take rome and so italy owes its unification to bismarck so they're they like bismarck a lot they hate the austrians because the austrians have been on thorn their side for hundreds of years but austria is a friend of germany so like okay we'll go along with it so in other words britain uh italy austria russia they all are part of alliances and france has left out the only thing that friends can make an alliance with is like spain and that's going to do absolutely no good to try to retake territory that germany now controls in 1888 wilhelm dies and he is replaced by his son frederick wilhelm uh sorry is replaced by his son frederick iii i apologize frederick iii is the dude in color frederick iii is married to queen victoria's oldest daughter victoria when frederick iii takes over during his coronation he has his really bad cough and his throat is constantly sore and so he goes to his doctors and his doctors examined him and his doctors say um your majesty you have throat cancer you shouldn't smoke cigars if we operate now we can save you but the problem is you will lose your voice well victoria is not happy with this and so she says honey go see my english doctors and so the english doctors take a look and go oh no you just have a bad sore throat and a cold it's not cancer don't worry about it well frederick iii like any good husband listens to his wife and she listens to her doctors and they are wrong and eight months later he is dead from cancer and their son wilhelm ii william ii takes over so you have three emperors in one year wilhelm frederick and wilhelm again wilhelm ii was really too young to be emperor he probably shouldn't have become emperor for another five ten years and he's like your age college student age almost and so he chafes under bismarck telling him what to do and after two years he basically gives bismarck his walking papers the problem is without bismarck's guidance wilhelm is going to do a bunch of stupid stuff which will help cause world war one but in the meantime so this had been the french empire between 1830 and 1870. algiers a little bit of madagascar some vietnam that was about it with france basically shut out of europe they decide to go exploring in africa and you can see what they set off because you know what france does in africa people start going what is friends up to let's check it out and so you start in 1880 large swaths of africa are still owned by the africans but by 1913 the only places that are left that are still independent are ethiopia and liberia and the reason why ethiopia is still left is because ethiopia is well it's ethiopia it's linked it goes all the way back to the queen of sheba and king solomon i mean it's at this stage i think it's technically the oldest nation in the world and liberia because liberia was established by former u.s slaves and is kind of a semi-puppet state of the united states so no one's going to mess in that one otherwise you know africa is a fair game now you go wait a second how did africa get conquered so quickly a couple things in the end of the 19th century scientists begin to understand pathogens and germs and they begin to grasp things like snow's idea that bacteria can be in water and that by boiling water you can not get sick there's also things like quinine which is found in tonic water which helps prevent malaria and so the the variety of of [Music] medicines and so forth which allow europeans to now go in more than 20 miles into africa without being um without succumbing to disease the disease barrier is gone there every year there are these new technologies coming up there's the machine gun all these things that african nations are not necessarily prepared for so part of the reason why your first readings had to do with colonization in africa also you consider the brain drain that has happened in africa because some of the best and brightest were sold into slavery to the new world now it's a messed up business but it's even darker than that and what i mean by that is hopefully everyone here knows about charles darwin he's the father of evolution he wrote origins of species um survival of the fittest the concept of you know being able to adapt to one's environment is how you survive well harvard spencer took this to another level and he created something known as social darwinism herbert spencer contended that darwin's theory of evolution allowed successful europeans to explain their position in society in other words herbert spencer would say if you're poor it's because you have bad genes um basically it's an extremely racist concept that you know white europeans and wealthy white europeans are in charge for a reason it's because genetically they're superior can you see where this is going herbert spencer is like the grandfather of eugenics and the nazis and all that stuff and so europeans of every stripe french british belgians all use herbert spencer as a justification for taking africa now in reality i mean it's like the spanish in the new world last semester the reason why they took over um the aztec and inca empires was not because of christianity it was because there was gold and they wanted the gold and they used the religion as a cover so to now europeans use spencer and this concept of social darwinism as a cover for going into africa in order to seize the raw materials and steal them from the africans probably the worst defender of all is king leopold of belgium um belgium is like a really new country king leopold you know on the surface is the head of the anti-slavery league you know he is always putting together these conferences to stamp out slavery you know he portrays himself as this great white savior in reality it's much different in the congo which is an area that he controls which is in the other map big purple section in the center he establishes these rubber plantations now rubber is becoming really big right now because there are all these cool things that you can make with it it's critical for electricity automobile tires all kinds of stuff well the natives do not necessarily want to work at his rubber plantations so what he does is he starts rounding up and and cutting off their hands and their feet and then he discovers well if you cut off the hands of an adult worker they can't work anymore so instead his minions hot hired by him kidnapped the children of the villagers and basically threaten to cut off their hands in order that their parents will go and work in his plantations as virtual slaves um it's actually an american group of journalists who sneak into the congo at the la into the late 19th century early 20th century and document the horrors of this stuff and of course you know leopold denies he's like oh no i have no idea what you're talking about well guess what we have photographs to prove he did it oh no it never really happened you made it up no we didn't this guy is one of the darkest people in late 19th century evilest people speaking of evil people let's talk about the boers for a second now the boers or the afrikaans were the um pseudo-dutch settlers who would start off in the cape colony and then when the british had ended slavery they had picked up their slaves and they had moved into more kind of isolated areas the orange free state and the trons fall the problem was that in the 1880s gold was discovered in um board territory and then diamonds were found and you have someone like cecil rhodes founder of rhodes scholars also founder of rhodesia which is a problematic place um moving in he's the de beers the diamond company that's him move into um the orange free state in the trons fall you have all these europeans coming in to board territory many of them british coming to work in the gold mines and the diamond mines and they come with all kinds of crazy ideas like africans have rights they're maybe not equal but they have rights um like in cape town africans could vote um and this just horrified the boards because the boers don't see africans native africans as real people and so what happens is that the boers attempt to prevent white europeans from having rights now europeans were willing to allow the wars to do this to the african population but not the white people too and so what you have in 1898 is a war between the wars and the british and it goes on from 1898 until basically 1902 the boers fight in part because they are convinced that if the british win africans will have rights and they don't want that to happen um the british think this is going to be a cakewalk but they're wrong because the boers are prepared they know the territory well um and they also have an ally in wilhelm the second dude on the bottom left and so the boars have a lot of modern farms in fact some of theirs are better than the british british army up in the center there you know thinks this is going in there you know they're just gonna kind of beat up these races and get things straightened out and in the end the british win but it's not an easy fight and the trans fell in the orange free state will be absorbed into a wider south africa one of the greatest legacies of the war war there was a colonel by the name of baden powell uh he was given the town of maf king to hold baden powell was was told you know you have enough supplies for about 70 days and he held the town for over 200. he did all kinds of crazy things like creating fake minefields stringing imaginary bob wire all kinds of crazy stuff to fool the bores additionally he hired 40 local kids to act as scouts for him and basically free up more men to fight and he was impressed by how these local kids knew more about like um what direction was north and just intrinsic things than your average british soldier who seemed to be pretty stupid and so coming back from south africa he will be inspired by these 40 kids to create the scouting movement which still exists today alright i will catch you all later